Stop asking it to explain. Make it teach you.
Ten named prompts that turn ChatGPT from something that answers questions into something that actually teaches: quizzing you, catching what you have not understood, and making you prove it. Every one is copy and paste ready.
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These are not official ChatGPT commands. No menu appears, nothing autocompletes, and you will not find them in any settings page. They work anyway, because ChatGPT reads the name as the instruction it plainly is.
Try it. Ask "what is an AI agent", read the answer, then type /quiz me. It goes straight into quizzing you on what it just told you. The same is true of all ten: type the name with a topic and it does the thing.
The reason to bother is that asking ChatGPT to explain something is the weakest way to learn from it. You read a tidy summary, it all makes sense, and three days later none of it is there. Nothing tested whether you understood it, so nothing stuck.
Every shortcut below does one of three things instead: it makes the idea land, it tests you, or it makes you use the thing. That is the difference between reading about a topic and being able to do something with it.
So why is there a full prompt under each one? Because the short name gives you ChatGPT's idea of what it means, and the long version gives you yours. Use the name on its own day to day. Reach for the full prompt when you want it to behave in a particular way, or when you want to change the rules and keep them.
Two rules before you start.
Three shortcuts for the beginning, when you do not yet know enough to ask a good question.
Use this first. It tells you what you are actually signing up for.
/learning roadmap Topic: [TOPIC] What I already know: [NOTHING, OR WHAT YOU KNOW] Why I am learning it: [THE REAL REASON] Time I have: [HOURS PER WEEK] Build me a step by step learning plan. Start with whatever I have to understand before anything else makes sense, and build up from there. For each step: what it covers, why it comes at that point rather than earlier or later, roughly how long it takes, and how I will know I have got it before moving on. Cut anything that is interesting but not necessary for my reason above. Tell me what you cut and why. Be honest about the total time. Do not tell me I can learn this in a weekend if I cannot.
A plan in an order that makes sense, with the fluff removed. The "tell me what you cut" line is the useful part, because it shows you what the topic contains that you have decided to skip.
/explain simply Explain [TOPIC] to me in plain language. Rules: - Assume I know nothing about this field. If you use a term from it, define it in the same sentence. - Give a concrete example for every abstract point. Real numbers and real situations, not "imagine a company". - No analogies yet. - Build in order, so nothing refers to something you have not explained. Then end with the one sentence that matters most, and say why that is the one.
An explanation you can follow at the first reading. Banning analogies here is deliberate, because a good analogy can make you feel like you understand something you cannot actually use.
Use this when the plain explanation still has not landed.
/make it click I am trying to understand [TOPIC] and it has not clicked yet. Something I understand well: [A HOBBY, YOUR JOB, A SPORT, HOW YOUR BUSINESS WORKS] Explain the idea using that, mapping each part of it onto a part of the thing I know. Then, and this matters most, tell me where the comparison breaks down: what is true in my familiar thing that is not true here, so I do not carry the wrong idea forward.
The breakdown at the end is the whole point. An analogy with no stated limits is how people end up confidently wrong.
This is the part people skip, and it is the part that does the work. Reading again feels like studying. Being asked feels harder because it is.
/quiz me Topic: [TOPIC] Quiz me one question at a time. Wait for my answer before you say anything about it. If I get it wrong or say I am stuck, give me one hint first and let me try again. Only then tell me the answer and explain why it is the answer. Ask about the things that actually matter and the things people get wrong, not trivia or definitions I could look up. Keep going until I say stop. Every five questions, tell me which parts I am solid on and which I keep stumbling on.
The running tally every five questions is what makes this better than a quiz. It shows you the pattern in what you are getting wrong.
/level up Topic: [TOPIC] Start with a question a beginner could answer. After each answer, adjust: harder if I got it right, easier or more basic if I did not. When I get something wrong, explain what I was missing before the next question, and come back to that idea again later in a different form to check it stuck. Tell me the level we are at as we go, and when we stop, tell me where I actually am and what the next thing to learn is.
Finds your ceiling in about ten minutes. The instruction to revisit a missed idea later is what stops you nodding along and forgetting it.
/spot the mistake Topic: [TOPIC] Give me a realistic example with one deliberate mistake in it, the kind someone who half understands this would actually make. Do not tell me what the mistake is. I will try to find and fix it. Then tell me whether I got it, and what the consequence of that mistake would have been in practice. If I miss it, point to the area rather than the answer and let me look again. Then give me another one, a bit less obvious.
Harder than it sounds and the fastest way to find out whether you understand something or just recognise it. Asking for the real-world consequence is what makes the lesson stay.
Four shortcuts for turning something you have understood into something you can use and recall.
The single most useful one on this page.
/teach it back I am going to explain [TOPIC] to you in my own words. Listen, then find what is wrong or missing. Tell me: 1. What I got right, specifically. 2. What I got wrong, and what the correct version is. 3. What I left out that matters, and why it matters. 4. Anything I said in a way that suggests I have the wrong idea underneath, even if the words were nearly right. Be direct. Do not soften it or tell me it was a good effort. I would rather know now. Here is my explanation: [YOUR EXPLANATION]
Point four is the one to read twice. It catches the misunderstandings that produce almost-correct answers, which are the ones that cause problems later.
/put it to work I have just learned about [TOPIC]. My situation: [YOUR BUSINESS, JOB OR PROJECT] Give me one small practical challenge that makes me apply it to my own situation. Something I could finish in under 30 minutes, with a result I can look at and judge. Tell me the task and what a good result looks like, but do not do it for me and do not give me the steps. When I come back with my attempt, tell me what works, what does not, and the one thing to change.
Applying it to your own situation rather than a textbook case is what turns knowing into being able to do.
/compare concepts I keep confusing [FIRST IDEA] and [SECOND IDEA]. Put them side by side: 1. What each one actually is, in one sentence. 2. The single difference that matters most. 3. When you would use each, with a real example. 4. Why they get confused, which is usually the useful part. 5. A test I can apply in the moment to tell which one I am looking at. Then give me three cases and ask me which is which, without telling me first.
Point five is what you are really after: a question you can ask yourself that settles it without looking anything up.
/memory hooks Help me remember the key points of [TOPIC]. Give me three different kinds of hook: 1. An acronym, if the points have a natural order. 2. A short story or image where each part stands for one of the points. 3. A single sentence that carries the whole idea, short enough to actually recall. They have to be accurate, not just memorable. If a hook would make me remember a slightly wrong version, do not use it. Then tell me which of the three you think will work best for this particular topic and why.
The accuracy instruction matters. A neat acronym that distorts the idea is worse than no acronym.
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Using one of these is better than nothing. Using them in order is what turns an afternoon into something you still have next month. The pattern is: understand it, be tested on it, use it, then prove you can explain it.
Run /learning roadmap once so you know what the topic contains and what you are skipping.
/explain simply on the first step. If it has not landed, /make it click. Do not move on while it is still fuzzy.
/quiz me or /level up on just that piece. This is where you find out whether you learned it or read it.
/put it to work on your own situation. Thirty minutes, a real result.
/teach it back. If you cannot explain it without hedging, you are not finished with that piece.
Back to step two. /spot the mistake, /compare concepts and /memory hooks come in whenever they are the thing you need.
The failure mode to watch for: it will tend to agree with you and tell you that you are doing well. That feels good and teaches you nothing. If every answer comes back as nearly right, add "be direct, do not soften it, and tell me plainly when I am wrong" to whatever you are running. If it still never disagrees with you, start a new chat, because the tone of the conversation has set.
The names already work on their own, so this step is not about making them function. It is about pinning down how they behave, so /quiz me means one hint before the answer and a progress summary every five questions every time, rather than whatever ChatGPT feels like that day.
The clean way is a project. In ChatGPT, open the sidebar and select New project, name it something like Learning, then open it, select the three dots and Project settings, and paste the instructions below. Every chat inside that project then runs your version of the ten.
Paste this into Project settings, then edit any rule you want different. This is where you make the shortcuts yours.
You are helping me learn things properly rather than just answering questions. When I use any of these names, follow it even if I give you only the name and a topic: /learning roadmap: a step by step plan, basics first, with what you cut and why. /explain simply: plain language, every term defined in place, a concrete example for every abstract point, no analogies. /make it click: explain it through something I already know, then say where the comparison breaks down. /quiz me: one question at a time, wait for my answer, one hint before the answer, a progress summary every five. /level up: adjust difficulty to my answers, explain what I missed, revisit it later in a different form. /spot the mistake: a realistic example with one deliberate error, do not tell me what it is, give me the real consequence after. /teach it back: I explain, you find what is wrong, missing, or nearly right in a way that reveals a wrong idea underneath. /put it to work: one practical challenge under 30 minutes applied to my own situation, no steps given. /compare concepts: two confused ideas side by side, plus a test I can apply in the moment. /memory hooks: an acronym, a story and a one sentence version, accuracy over memorability. Across all of them: - Be direct. Tell me plainly when I am wrong. Never soften it or praise an answer that was not good. - Never move on while I am still vague about something. - If I have not told you the topic, ask for it before you start.
From then on the short name works inside that project. Keep it to one project so your ordinary chats are unaffected.
How many files and projects you get varies by plan, but project instructions like these are available wherever projects are. If you would rather not use a project, the same text works in your custom instructions, with the trade-off that it then applies to everything you do in ChatGPT, including the parts that have nothing to do with learning.
Ten named prompts that make ChatGPT test you instead of reassure you, saved in one place so using them costs nothing. The ones that do the most work are /teach it back and /spot the mistake, because both of them can fail, and something that can fail is the only thing that tells you where you are.
Be realistic about what this replaces. It will not make you an expert and it has no way of knowing what it has got wrong about a specialist topic, so check anything that matters against a real source. What it does well is the part that is usually missing: someone to ask you questions, notice what you dodged, and refuse to move on.
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